Monday, March 3, 2014

World War I Saw The Creation of Two CPI's....Do You Know Them Both?

Did you know that the dreadful World War I years saw the creation of not one, but two CPI's?

We all know about the Consumer Price Index. It's still here to constantly remind us that our never-ending rising bills are just a figment of our imagination. Prices are stable you fool; just look at the government's calculations!

World War I did bring us another, lesser-known CPI, as well. In Apr. 1917, Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, a name that Hillary Clinton would have definitely approved of.

This CPI was created by executive order to act as the U.S. government's propaganda arm. Its task was to get the U.S. public with the program. You see, the public was strongly against the U.S. government getting involved in a conflict between some European princes. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the U.S. And, after all, Wilson was re-elected because "he kept us out of war".

This was a problem for Wilson. The American public just didn't understand that the time had come for the burgeoning American Empire to spread its wings. The previous 20 years saw the U.S. military get its sea legs in conquering Latin American countries. It was time to move on to the Old World.

Wilson was pumped, and a brand new central bank, known as The Federal Reserve, was ready to pump paper dollars to fund the new adventure. But the pesky American public was a problem.

Up to that point, no American soldier had ever set foot on European soil to fight for any reason. People naturally are uncomfortable with change as it is. You have to really jolt them with some kind of "incident" in order to get the juices flowing.

Needless to say, the "incidents" arrived (which won't be covered here) and the newly created CPI was tasked with finishing the American public off.

Wilson picked George Creel, a muckraking journalist from Missouri, to head the organization. Under Creel's leadership, the CPI carried out activities designed to stir America's fervor for war. The Four-Minute Men, one of Creel's most successful creations, was a volunteer group of thousands of men who visited meetings and movie theaters across the country to make pro-war speeches. Both a Films Division and a News Division were established to help get out the war message. What was missing, Creel saw, was a way to reach those Americans who might not read newspapers, attend meetings or watch movies. For this task, Creel created the Division of Pictorial Publicity.

Over the next 18 months, the CPI's Division of Pictorial Publicity produced over 1,400 works seen by millions on billboards across the country. Some illustrations appealed to the public's patriotic side, but others incorporated shocking anti-German imagery to exploit and encourage Americans' fear and hatred of the enemy.

"relied on the techniques of modern psychology to persuade people. This approach was so subtle that people often thought their change in opinion had come from within themselves and not from some external force."

That's the kind of stuff that would give Cass "Nudge" Sunstein goosebumps.

Germany, which was a non-threat to the U.S., would end up getting the Saddam Hussein treatment by the CPI. And it worked.

We know the rest of the story. Wilson's decision would set the stage for the despicable 20th century, which would see Communism, the Nazi's, the Fascists, hundreds of millions dead.............all the way up to today, where the U.S. Empire is still fighting wars at all times, and in places that have absolutely no bearing on American life.

The CPI would eventually be dissolved...but its tasks are still carried out for sure. The moment that the U.S. government decides on an enemy, the entire mainstream media, Hollywood, and gaggle of "journalists" line up like they're on a synchronized swimming team.

The performance has been perfected. The War Presidents are still pumped. And The Fed is still pumping dollars to pay for it all!

6 comments:

Another solid essay here at EPJ. The way you point out that the CPI is just a tool to manage the perception of the masses is key. This is how the bureaucrats steal from the citizenry through the stealth tax of inflation and then they convince them that inflation is good and 'stable' to keep the sheep from spooking and acting in concert to withdraw support from the system. Your comment that "the U.S. Empire is still fighting wars at all times, and in places that have absolutely no bearing on American life" is particularly important as it exposes that the whole point of the system - to put the country in debt to fund wars which transfer wealth to political cronies. And, of course, the masses seem to fall for the rationale every time. "Liberty Cabbage," or whatever you may call it, "The performance has been perfected." Indeed. Bravo for calling it like it is.

For starters, the CPI is not followed by the masses. Ron Paul does not even follow the CPI and he sat on the banking committee. He said many times that the CPI does not include food and fuel. Core CPI does not include food and fuel but the headline number does include these items.

Second, the Fed's dual mandate was enacted in 1979. Prior to that, the Fed was not required by law to generate inflation to reduce unemployment. Since 1979, the Fed has only actively fought unemployment from 2001 to 2004 and from 2008 to 2014. The rest of the time the Fed was fighting inflation not creating inflation. So the idea that there is this massive duping of the public to accept inflation is patently absurd. Only when there has been a job less recovery did the Fed attempt to generate inflation.

Massive wars all the time? Who is fighting them? Until the Iraq invasion in 2003, it was very rare for military personal to have seen combat. Pretty much everyone who served from 1972 to 2003 saw no combat.